Agora - March 26, 2018

One Book One Book, One Community events go through April and offer something for everyone

Pages 8-9

Opiate Wars Is MCCC doing its part?

(Spoiler: The answer seems to be no - Page 6)

L Building addition opening Page 3 Visiting art professor Page 10 New Political Science prof Page 11 Shooting for sports at MCCC Page 15 A Wrinkle in Time reviewed Page 16

Serving Monroe County since 1968

March 26, 2018

Vol. 65, Issue 6

2 • Campus News

March 26, 2018

Agora/mcccagora.com

Agora is looking for new editor The Agora, MCCC’s student newspaper, is taking applications for editor for the 2018-2019 school year.

Students interested in the position should contact Agora adviser Dan Shaw for the application.

“It’s not a complicated process,” Shaw said. “It involves a one-page form and answering a few basic questions, like why do you want to be editor of the Agora, and what makes you a good candidate.”

While previous experience on the Agora staff or completion of courses like Intro to Journalism are helpful, they are not required, Shaw said.

“Anyone who is interested in journalism and thinks they have the leadership skills to manage a staff is encouraged to apply,” Shaw said.

The Agora publishes eight times a year, every 3-4 weeks during fall and winter semester. It also manages www.mcccagora. com, a website with news updated regularly during the academic year.

Vanessa Ray, this year’s editor, helped the Agora make the transition to a “web-first” news organization, with many of the stories published on the website first, Shaw said.

Any MCCC student can join the Agora staff by registering for JOURN 162, Journalism Workshop, Shaw said. Intro to Journalism, JOURN 161, is a prerequisite that can be taken at the same time.

Shaw said the prerequisite often is waived for students who can show they have a background in writing. Students also can free-lance for the Agora without joining the staff.

Applications for the editor position are due to Shaw by April 6.

Editor Vanessa Ray

Journalism conference highlights strong women Carla Cohen Agora Staff

Two focused, confident women who gave perspectives on how to be a better journalist stood out at the College Media Association convention in New York City.

Seven members of the Agora staff attended the convention March 8-10, where they could choose from sessions featuring more than 150 speakers.

One of the keynote speakers was Lauren Duca, a journalist and writer for Teen Vogue.

During her speech, Duca said journalists are more worried about being fair than being accurate. Things have gone from “what does the public need to know?” to “the public needs to know everything.”

Everyone sitting around the Agora staff buzzed at her upfront and in-your-face demeanor. A certain four-letter word beginning with F was dropped.

“No one really knows anything,” Duca said.

“Write what you know and don’t be afraid to learn,” she told the audience. “Don’t be afraid to learn and ask questions — build a name for your-

The Agora

Chief Copy Editor James P. Quick

Staff

Cheyanne Abel Shane Brooks Carla Cohen Taylor Dively Miranda Gardner

Photo by Dan Shaw

Lauren Duca, a keynote speaker at the New York convention.

self.”

Holly Johnson, from Mercer County Community College, walked students through how to nail difficult interviews. One example she used was using the subject’s body language to an advantage.

If the subject is shifting in their seat, avoiding eye contact, press them for more information. Form more hard-hitting questions, but make them direct and to-the-point. If the interviewer leans forward, it means they’re interested in

Web Editor Leah Thomas Adviser Dan Shaw

Sawyer Jackson Cassidy Maier McKinley Striggow Don Thomas Erin Thomas

Editorial Policy The Agora is published by the students of Monroe County Community College, 1555 S. Raisinville Rd., Monroe, MI, 48161. The editorial office is located in Room 202 of the Life Sciences Building, (734) 384-4186, agora@monroeccc.edu.

Submissions: The Agora encourages submissions by anyone in the college community, including free-lance articles, opinion columns, or letters to the editor. All submissions must include a name, address, and phone number for verification purposes. The Agora reserves the right to edit for clarity, accuracy, length, and libel.

The Agora is a student-managed newspaper that supports a free student press. It is a member of the Michigan Community College Press Association, the Michigan Press Association, College Media Association, Associated Collegiate Press and the Student Press Law Center.

Story suggestions are welcome. Let us know what you would like to see in The Agora - it’s your newspaper. Email submissions to agora@monroeccc.edu.

what the interviewee is saying.

On the other hand, leaning backward can set the person at ease. It doesn’t necessarily mean someone is less interested, but instead, relaxed.

If the subject had been through a difficult time, mirroring their body language could be effective. It could help to set them at ease, possibly getting them to open up easier. Starting simple with easy questions will help both people be less nervous.

A potential challenge, Johnson said, is keeping one’s feelings to oneself.

Relate to the subject, but don’t give them a personal life story. It should be about them, the subject, not personal anecdotes or grandma’s cookie recipe. When interviewing, there will often be uncomfortable silences; let the pauses hang. After all, people don’t like uncomfortable silences.

“Chances are, by not filling the silence, the subject will instead,” Johnson said.

Even though it may be nervous ramblings, they could say something of value without thinking it over first. One way to remember it would be the acronym S.L.A.N.T., which stands for: Sit up, Lean, Ask, Nod, and Trap (by eye contact).

There are different types of people, so don’t think all these tips will work for everyone.

How things are worded can affect the responses. It’s the difference between “what were you thinking at the time?” and “how did you feel that day?”

Both women gave great advice on getting the facts and not being afraid to go forth into the future and succeed.

GSA stands for something new James P. Quick Chief Copy Editor

The campus’s GayStraight Alliance is now the Gender and Sexuality Alliance.

The acronym remains “GSA,” but the new name is more inclusive and appeals to a wider range of people and experiences.

Jenna Magrum, the club’s co-chair, was positive about the updated name.

“We kind of figured that just as ‘Gay-Straight Alliance,’ people didn’t feel as open to joining,” she said.

“So, with ‘Gender and Sexuality,’ it doesn’t matter what sexuality, what gender you identify with; you’re always welcome to come join us. And it just gives more diversity to our name

and our group.”

The club’s co-adviser and one of the college’s professors of psychology, Melissa Grey, also spoke highly of the change.

“I think it’s helpful as a more accurate reflection of what the club represents and how the club has grown,” she said. “The Gay-Straight Alliance name was a very familiar name to people, and it’s a way of bringing people together in a way that we continue to honor in terms of inclusivity and bringing everyone who’s interested to the table.

“But the name didn’t quite capture the full experience of everyone who’s in the club. So, Gender and Sexuality Alliance helps to illustrate that people of all

genders and sexualities are welcome.”

The name change was put into effect this semester, though it was discussed last semester, according to Magrum.

The results of the change certainly seem to be promising.

“We have seen an increase in members,” Magrum said. “We had about five new people join. We’re still going to be recruiting as we’re rather small, but we’re always open to new people, no matter who they are.”

Students wishing to participate in the GSA are welcome to contact Melissa Grey at mgrey@monroecc. edu.

Agora/mcccagora.com

March 26, 2018

Campus News • 3

Come work or play L Building’s student space interior is complete McKinley Striggow Agora Staff

The new L Building addition is opening.

While the tentative completion date for the exterior of the student space is Spring 2018, students can start using the new room this semester.

“It’s going to be cool when it’s done,” Detroit Spectrum Painter Greg Rose said.

The bright green room is fitted with several large work stations, a lounging area, and three vending machines.

Each work station includes a television.

The lounge is staged with couches, chairs, and tables.

If students walk straight from the math den down the addition’s corridor, the vending machines are on the left.

“It looks nice, it’s very well lit,” sophomore Gale Selden said. “I love the natural lighting.”

Selden said she would definitely use the space when it becomes available to students to do her homework.

The college passed a millage in 2016, which is funding a series of remodeling projects.

This student space is one of many improvements included in the millage plans.

The next buildings in line to be remodeled are East and West Tech.

Work on these buildings is scheduled to begin in the summer of 2018 and will take at least a year to complete, said Jack Burns, director of Campus Planning and Facilities.

Burns said the new L Building addition could be available by the end of March.

Photos by Vanessa Ray

Clockwise starting left, the student space has quiet areas for study. The lounge has plenty of room for students to relax on couches and chairs, and students can study or socialize around the science-themed end tables. The student space’s exterior will be complete in the 2018 Spring Semester.

4 • Campus News

March 26, 2018

Agora/mcccagora.com

MCCC potentially loses students to bill Donald Thomas Agora Staff

A recent bill passed in the Michigan legislature threatens to take students away from MCCC. The legislation in question is HB 4735, an underwhelming name for a bill that may disrupt the future of MCCC. Kojo Quartey, president of MCCC, has emphasized how major of an impact this could have on the college.

“It’s misguided legislation; it’s legislation that may not have an impact on many institutions, but it will have an impact on us,” he said.

“There are four border high schools that we work with – Bedford, Whiteford, Erie-Mason, and Summerfield – that are all within our county.

“Looking at those four school districts, this could mean upward of 300 students we could lose. That’s 10 percent of our enrollment because of this misguided legislation.”

The bill will allow high school students from Michigan to dual enroll in out-of-state colleges for in-state rates. To do so, students will only need to live on the border and either not have access to the class in-state, or want to take a class at cheaper rates.

“We have other institutions now that have been giving lunch to come in and teach these courses at any of these four institutions,” Quartey said. “A number of adult students are going off to work and with the economy, dual enrollment has been the only area of growth that we have had in the last five years. This is very similar to other institutions across the state.

“It’s taking state money out of in-state institutions to pay out-of-state ones to teach the courses that we were teaching, at a lower price.”

One college has already smelled the blood in the water caused by this legislation.

“From what I understand, Lourdes University is already teaching classes at Summerfield,” Quartey said. “This legislation has facilitated another college coming across the border to eat our lunch already. We had a meeting with Whiteford and Erie-Mason and Lourdes wants to come into their institutions as well.”

There is only one way that Quartey hopes to counter this and future actions by out-ofstate institutions.

“We are also a quality institution. We can only try to counter it by being as competitive as we can be,” he said. “So, I’m going to be talking to my board and the superintendents of those institutions to see how we can better serve the kids from those institutions.

“Possibly Owens and UT could come in and do what Lourdes is already doing. They are already here and having conversations with those other institutions.”

Keeping this in mind, Quartey asks himself the question: how do we minimize the

Photo by Vanessa Ray.

MCCC President Kojo Quartey strongly disagrees with a bill that allows county students to dual-enroll at out-of-state colleges.

impact of this misguided legislation? The answers he has come up with are his hope to help restore the future of MCCC. “In the long term, our tuition is much more affordable than those other institutions.

They may provide a cheaper price for a few of their classes, but they will then double or quintuple the amount when students go

“Looking at those four school districts, this could mean upward of 300 students we could lose. That’s 10 percent of our enrollment because of this misguided legislation.”

Kojo Quartey MCCC President

there,” he said. “So, it’s not all about price competition.”

Instead, Quartey has expressed that MCCC should focus on quality and the relationships that it already has with schools.

“To have conversations with the superintendents, to convince them that we are still

the institution of choice. The fact that we have been serving them for all these years should mean something, and though we may not be able to charge that lower price, we are still affordable,” he said. “So, more conversations and emphasizing our quality and relationships that we already have with them.”

According to Quartey, only seven senators voted against the bill in the Michigan Senate.

“Only seven individuals voted against the legislation, and one of them was our own Dale Zorn. He wanted it to be reciprocal and he also talked about our state funds going to Ohio, as that is what essentially they voted for here,” he said.

Quartey said most of the senators who voted for the bill did not have community colleges that would be affected in their districtes.

“Of the 28 community colleges, there are only 2 or 3 that would be impacted,” he said.

“Most of them in the Senate don’t have a dog in the fight, while we do.”

According to Zorn, his “dog in the fight” was a neighborly wish.

“I felt that there should be reciprocity between states,” he said.

“The colleges involved would have to be 20 miles from the border, so it would be basically colleges in counties on the border. I would like to see a level playing field for everyone and I thought that it should be more consistent.”

The bill passed through the Senate without any amendments being offered, according to Zorn.

“There wasn’t any discussion on adding amendments on the bill,” Zorn said. “When it came out of committee, it was on an H3, which means that there were three earlier versions. When on the floor it wasn’t accepted for an H4, so there weren’t any amendments on it then.”

Passing a bill doesn’t take very long, Zorn said.

“In theory, we could have a bill passed in 10 days,” Zorn said. “If there was an emergency and something had to be done, we could get a bill passed in 10 days.

“Some bills take a year or over a year, some bills take two weeks. Some bills go right through as they are simple and quick.

It’s pretty normal how fast it went through the Senate.”

Quartey believes that amending this law would be a long shot.

“By the time you try to get around to changing the law, they will have already cleared the table, they will have eaten the lunch, had dessert, and drank their coffee and cleaned it, and that’s if we can change it,” he said. “And you’ve got to think about how fast it went through the Senate; only seven voted against.

“Changing the legislation is the best viable option at this point.”

Agora/mcccagora.com

Campus News • 5

March 26, 2018

VITA program helps community with taxes

James P. Quick Chief Copy Editor

The year is going well for the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program.

The name is abbreviated to VITA. It is a course offered by the college, and is staffed by students who do taxes for people with a total income of $54,000 or less.

“This program is actually something that the IRS offers,” said accounting professor Parnella Baul, “and they kind of market it to non-profit organizations, colleges, and universities. So this is a partnership with the IRS.” Baul is the supervisor of the program.

“I thought it was important that my students have practical experience as accounting majors in particular. My hope was that we would have an internship at some point,” she said.

“That didn’t happen, so this was kind of a great way to provide a business environment.”

Students do more than just prepare taxes in the program.

They are assistant coordinators, greeters, and quality reviewers.

This is the second year that VITA has been offered at MCCC. “Last year, it was a special topics course,” said Baul. “I started with four students and one volunteer, Ian, who is now my site coordinator. We did 36 tax returns last year… the IRS requires that we do 50 for them to continue to support us.”

This year, fortunately, numbers are far better all around.

Sixteen students work in the VITA program, and over the past three weeks have done 43 tax returns. Friday, 13 more appointments were scheduled, and walk-ins are welcomed and expected.

The process takes between an hour and an hour-and-a-half.

The length depends on the returns’ complexity.

Briefs

Door locks announced

New door locks will be installed soon on all classrooms at MCCC, President Kojo Quartey announced March 22.

“As part of our ongoing effort to improve safety and security, door locking mechanisms are being installed throughout our buildings (including the Whitman Center),” Quartey said in an email.

He said the college is purchasing a locking system called “Bearacade,” which was selected after researching several options and calling other institutions.

According to the Bearacade website, the locks are mounted near the door and can be quickly put in place to secure the door in case of an incident such as an active shooter.

Quartey said money for the locks was included in the millage increase approved by voters in November 2016. He added that the project was moved up because of the number of shooting incidents at schools. The Bearacade website is http:// doorbeararcade.com/.

Chili Cookoff planned

A Chili Cookoff will be held Tuesday, April 10, as part of MCCC’s entry in the

Photo by Vanessa Ray

VITA students: Seated, Charles McKee, Ian Lawson, Kara Walker, Nathan Grodi, Brent Olive, Timothy Feganes, Kyle Spinale.

Sitting, Michael Grodi.

VITA runs for two further weeks, then ends for the season.

Ian Lawson is a returning member of the original five students, and is now co-site coordinator for VITA. “When I first heard about this project,” he said, “I thought that it was an amazing opportunity for something like a mock internship. So, me being an accounting major, I took my first accounting class with Professor Baul.

“She said, ‘I have this organization that’s starting, would anyone like to be involved in it?’ I didn’t know it was going to be a class, I didn’t know I had to sign up. I just thought ‘that’s amazing!’ and I jumped on. I’ve been saying yes to

help and to advance since then.”

The VITA course can be taken in place of an accounting course, but any student can take it as an elective.

“We welcome all students,” Baul said. “I want this to be an experience any major can participate in.”

VITA also partners with Habitat for Humanity and the Michigan State University Extension Service.

“What they do is they come during the day and offer financial workshops,” Baul said. “For instance, budgeting, what you can do with your income tax return, that kind of thing.”

For more information, visit www.monroeccc.edu/taxassist.

Study Abroad meetings

2018 Monroe County March for Babies event.

The college is hosting the March for Babies on Sunday, May 6. Volunteers are being sought to participate in the event The Chili and Soup Cook-off is a fund-raiser for the March. It will be from noon to 1:30 in the A Building dining room.

Anyone who wants to enter a soup or chili should contact Ann Gerweck or Annette Kiebler by Wednesday, April 4.

A bake sale is also planned for April 24.

Equal Pay Day

MCCC’s chapter of the American Association of University Women is sponsoring an “Equal Pay Day” event on April 10.

Women currently make 82 cents to a dollar for men, event organizers noted.

The event will include post card writing to elected officials encouraging passage of bills to support equal pay for women.

The documentary film, “Girl Rising,” will be shown. It is an emotional but uplifting film featuring four young women from different cultures around the world who overcame cultural and institutionalized prejudices and barriers to achieve their educational and life goals.

Photo courtesy of Andrew McCain

Students Kaylee Slick and Nick Beaudrie staff the National Ag Day table March 20.

National Ag Day The MCCC Ag program celebrated the 45th annual National Ag Day on March 20.

Ag students staffed a display in front of the Admissions Office.

Andrew McCain, coordinator for MCCC’s Agriculture Program, said National Ag Day encourages Americans to understand how food products are produced and appreciate the many roles agriculture plays in our lives.

Two more information meetings have been set for the Study Abroad Program trip to the British Isles for MCCC students and community members that is scheduled for May 2019.

The trip will include visits to Ireland, Wales and England. The visit to England will include London and Stratford-upon-Avon, a market town in Warwickshire that is the birthplace of William Shakespeare.

The target dates for the trip are May 1327, 2019.

The price of the trip is between $3,929 and $4,449. Information on fundraising and payment options will be discussed in the scheduled meetings. Individuals must attend a meeting and fill out an application before registering for the trip.

The remaining two meetings are Tuesday, March 27, 12:30-1:30 p.m., Room Z258 and Thursday, March 29, 12:30-1:30 p.m., Room 257.

To participate in the trip, students must be 18 years of age, hold a GPA of 2.0 or higher, have two letters of recommendation, pass a criminal background check and register for the trip by Sept. 30, 2018.

6 • Campus News

March 26, 2018

Agora/mcccagora.com

Is MCCC doing enough to fight Erin Thomas Agora Staff

It all starts with messing around with a group of friends.

“I started off just experimenting with peers,” says Jessica Goins, a recovering drug addict. “And it just progressed before I even knew.”

She adds that once someone has dabbled with drugs, it is hard to regain focus on a life outside of drugs.

“Sometimes you can maintain for a little while, but it always catches up with you and it just becomes your main focus in life,” Goins says. “So everything else kinda falls to the wayside” After taking a college class in prison, Goins decided to turn her life around by taking classes at MCCC. Goins is not the only MCCC student struggling with drugs.

Experts agree the national opioid war extends into every corner of the country, including Monroe County and the college campus.

Yet MCCC security officers don’t carry Narcan, a drug that has saved thousands of overdose victims across the country, and college officials seem to have done little to join the community war against opioid addiction.

When asked what they would do if a student came to them with a drug problem, different college officials give various answers, some that are conflicting.

The only thing they mostly agree on is that they would send the student elsewhere for help.

Does the drug crisis affect MCCC? Lynn Breeding, a Monroe-area social worker, says it’s naive to think some MCCC students aren’t struggling with drug addiction.

“Anyone that believes that it doesn’t affect MCCC is operating behind a wall, because doing what I do and knowing my clients, they go to school,” Breeding says. “They are normal. They have everything that someone that does not have an active addiction has.”

Michael Roehrig, Chief Assistant Prosecuting Attorney for Monroe County, says the drug problem does not target a specific demographic.

“The opioid crisis affects everybody,” he says. “It’s not a certain socio economic or geographic area. It affects everyone across the board.”

Michigan State Police Trooper Donald Stewart agrees that the drug crisis affects everyone.

“Sure it does,” he says. “I think it affects everybody, absolutely.”

Paula Whitman, Executive Director of Paula’s House, a home for woman trying to recover from addictions, says marijuana

“Sometimes you can maintain for a little while, but it always catches up with you and it just becomes your main focus in life. So everything else kinda falls to the wayside.”

Jessica Goins Recovering Drug Addict also is a factor.

“Especially with legalized weed,” Whitman says. “People think its ok to go to school and they are high no matter how you look at it.”

She adds that women in her house always want to go to school when they sober up, some ending up at MCCC. “Many of the women that have been here have been in college and had to drop out because they weren’t up with their classes or the world or whatever,” Whitman says. “So when they get here, and they get clean, that’s the first thing they want to do.”

Staff at MCCC do not appear to be as aware of the drug crisis as the outsiders looking in.

President Kojo Quartey says he is unaware of a drug crisis on campus.

“Yes it is a major problem in the community, but is it a major problem here on our campus?

“We have not detected that,” he says. “Are students coming on campus to use drugs?

We haven’t found that that’s the case.”

Kim Lindquist, Dean of Health Sciences and Director of Nursing, agrees with Quartey, saying that the drug problem affects everyone, but she is not sure how much it directly affects the college.

“I think there is an addiction problem in the community,” she says. “How specific it is to the community college, I’m not for certain.”

“I have not seen direct evidence of it, but I do know that the addiction epidemic really bypasses any type of profile boundaries. It affects all socioeconomic levels.”

She says that she has not personally dealt with students who are on drugs.

“We haven’t had any student issues, to my knowledge, of someone struggling here on campus or being under the influence on campus.”

Counselor Jill Denko, however, says she knows of at least one incident on campus.

“At one point a student I know actually was in one of the restrooms, I’m not sure what kind of drugs they were using, but they were actually caught in the act. So I know it does happen.”

Should Narcan be on campus?

Narcan, the trademarked name for naloxone, is a drug administered to addicts who have overdosed, to try and reverse the life threatening effects of opioids.

The National Association of Addiction Medicine estimates 20,000 lives were saved in 2014 by administration of Narcan.

Breeding supports the idea of Narcan being carried by security officers at MCCC. “MCCC should definitely carry Narcan.

It’s not just students anymore. Addiction is not age specific anymore. I think everybody should have access to Narcan. Every student and staff should be trained and have knowledge of how to use it,” Breeding says.

She emphasizes Narcan should be widely available to aid in the survival of addicts who overdose.

“I very much support Narcan. Everyone has the right to survive and if it takes Narcan 20 times to get that person into recovery then it takes Narcan 20 times. Eventually, they will get it,” Breeding says.

Stewart says he thinks Narcan should be carried at the college because addiction is so universal today.

“This issue is so prevalent, and it’s so pervasive, and it’s so inclusive that absolutely without a doubt there should be Narcan available out there,” Stewart said.

Lieutenant John Wall, administrative captain with Monroe City Police, says he thinks MCCC security officers should be trained to carry Narcan.

“Many people use online instructional videos that show you how to do it – it really is so simple,” Wall says.

Bill Myers, MCCC’s Security Supervisor says there is currently no Narcan available on campus, but adds that he would be open to the idea of carrying it.

“Narcan is not available to us right at the time. We don’t have it on campus,” Myers says.

Quartey says he agrees that a limited number of people should carry Narcan on campus.

“Not every professor should have it in the classroom, because it hasn’t risen to that level. The dean’s offices should all have it,” Quartey said.

Lindquist also thinks having access to Narcan is a good idea.

“With appropriate training for the faculty and staff, there is a benefit to having Narcan on campus,” Lindquist says. “Again though reminding myself that we haven’t seen incidents here on campus.”

Overdose on campus Wall says using Narcan does not replace calling 911 during an overdose.

“If somebody on campus sees somebody having what they believe to be a drug overdose, they should immediately call 911,” Wall says. “Unless they have the training expertise needed to mitigate the problem, they’re gonna have to call upon medical services whether that be an ambulance or the police showing up.”

Quartey says that campus security would be the first to respond to an overdose on campus.

“I think security would be the one to approach them. Right down the road we have emergency services, so we would probably call them,” Quartey says.

Lindquist said she would also call 911 to get the patient medical help.

“Obviously, our resources here on campus are limited so if somebody was overdosing acutely, I would contact 911 and get them emergency medical treatment,” Lindquist says.

“My background is an emergency nurse, so I have a lot of experience dealing with patients who have overdosed.”

Myers said after responding they would call EMTs to report to the scene.

“We would have to call the EMTS, thankfully so far we have not had one of those incidents,” Myers says.

Where should we send students?

Breeding says the best thing MCCC could do is build connections with the many community groups that provide services for people with drug problems.

“I think that there should definitely be an advocacy group so that students have a place to go to,” she says.

“They should be able to have a referral resource, there should be someone on campus able to advocate for somebody in addiction.

It would be really nice to see MCCC connected to an agency like Community Mental Health Partnership of Southeast Michigan.”

Stewart says there are many places the college can send students who are looking for help.

“You can send them to the hospital. You can send them to us, we can get them the help, any of your local law enforcement agencies,” he says. “They need to reach out to someone.”

Agora/mcccagora.com

Campus News • 7

March 26, 2018

opiate addiction on campus?

There are several different groups in the community who support addicts, such as the Monroe Substance Abuse Coalition.

“So there is a myriad of places to help,” Stewart says.

Quartey says that MCCC’s role is to send students coming for help to a specialist.

“If someone came for help with addiction, I want to send them to individuals who are experts in the field,” Quartey says.

He adds that one place students can go for help on campus is the Learning Assistance Lab. “We have not advertised it, but students who have those challenges can go to our LAL and they will direct you, or they can go to one of our counselors on campus,” Quartey says.

“Were losing it, we are not reaching the kids at a young enough age. Everyone is focused on alcohol and weed.”

Lynn Breeding Monroe Social Worker

Kris Gerlach says that the LAL would be willing to provide counseling in an emergency state, but it is not their job to counsel students struggling with addiction.

“If it was a crisis situation we would definitely meet with them and talk with them and provide on the spot counselling, but then we would refer them on for rehab counseling outside because we don’t do regular ongoing counseling here,” Gerlach says.

Jill Denko counselor at MCCC says that she would be willing to speak to a student in emergency, but would refer them to another agency for long term care.

“We would refer them to an outside agency. We’ve been pretty fortunate here. We’ve had very few students coming to us with addiction issues. I’m sure that it happens on campus. I can’t be naive to think that we don’t have a drug situation here on campus.

However we really haven’t had to deal with a lot of it in our offices here.”

Lindquist mentions that she is willing to aid students, and was trained to send students to administration for help.

“Yes I would offer support and assistance.

We have been directed here on campus that some of our counselors in the administration area might be able to assist as well with these types of issues,” Lindquist said.

Monroe County community feels that they are doing everything they can to stop the drug crisis in Monroe County, but MCCC does not seem to be following in their footsteps.

Is Monroe doing enough?

Stewart says that there is no perfect way to fix the drug problem.

“There’s no end-all be-all fix, because unless the person is ready, they aren’t ready,” he says.

Michigan State Police Trooper Tressa Duffin points to a state police program that allows addicts to turn themselves in when they are ready to become sober.

“The State police has an angel program where the person can turn themselves in and say ‘hey I need help,’” she says. “If they are accepted, an angel will come in and take them to a treatment program.”

Quartey says he thinks MCCC should be more open to the idea of publicly talking about the drug addiction in our community.

“I think we should talk about drug addiction,” Quartey says. “I don’t think we talk about it enough. It’s a major problem in our community and there is a possibility that some of our students may encounter some of these challenges.”

He says he wishes MCCC had a class that talked about drugs and their effects.

“If I had my way, we would have a course for all of our students where we talk about the negative effect,” Quartey says.

Lindquist says she thinks the most critical thing is to encourage students so they are willing to open up.

“What’s important is that the student feels supported, and that they can come and talk to those all of us that work for Monroe County Community College,” she says.

Myers says his job is to monitor the campus to make certain the students and staff are safe.

“Anything that endangers any of our students or our staff is what we are here for,” Myers says. “We will evaluate and try to make the right choices to get the help for them.”

Lindquist says MCCC should direct students to the services that are found in the community.

“I don’t think the expectation is the college provides the services that they need,” she says.

War on drugs

Breeding says we are losing the war on drugs.

“Were losing it, we are not reaching the kids at a young enough age,” Breeding says.

“Everyone is focused on alcohol and weed.”

Wall says that they are finding people who have overdosed everywhere.

“We do have people in vehicles, we do find people on the sidewalks, but most of the time it’s within somebody’s home,” he says.

In the last five years ending in December of 2017, there were 214 drug-related deaths reported to the medical examiner in Mon-

“If someone came for help with addiction, I want to send them to individuals who are experts in the field.”

Kojo Quartey MCCC President roe County, according to statistics from the Monroe County Health Department.

Stewart says it is going to have to be the individual who helps make the change in the community.

“Are we gonna beat it from the outside?

No, it’s gonna come down to the individual, the individual has to put his or her foot down for themselves,” Stewart says.

Duffin says Monroe has been a leader in figuring out ways to deal with drug addiction.

“Monroe County has been kind of a frontrunner in how to deal with this,” she says.

Wall says the courts have also been stepping up by creating more barriers for the dealers to get away with the crime.

“The courts have been very proactive in making it more difficult for drug dealers and trying to get those who are addicted to drugs the help they need to reach sobriety,” he says.

Treating addicts

Breeding says that the community looks past addicts.

“Many people tend to overlook them.

If I don’t look directly at them, I don’t see them; they don’t exist. They don’t exist in my world until that glass house is shattered.

Then they have no choice but to face them.”

“There’s still a big stigma attached to addiction,” she says. “Families, if they have a person that has overdosed and died, it’s not making it in the paper that they died from addiction because of the stigma.”

Whitman thinks that the community is slowly becoming aware of the addiction problem because it’s now found in all people, rather than just one class.

“I think that it’s slowly changing, but the reason it’s changing is because heroin addicts are becoming high-class,” Whitman says. “It’s not poor kids, its middle class housewives that get hooked on pain pills, it’s elderly getting hooked on pain pills.”

Duffin adds that she thinks the stigma is fading because addiction influences everyone’s life.

“I think there was a stigma more back in the day. I think a lot of us have kinda become immune because it’s coming out into the mainstream now it doesn’t discriminate any-

more, where it used to maybe be a certain group that you could say, “Oh that person’s a druggy.” Now it can affect anybody, it can be college-bound kid, it can be a doctor, it can be a nurse etc.” she says.

For Jessica Goins, the path out of addiction started with a class in prison through Eastern Michigan University on gender studies. It was a part of the Inside Out Program, where half the kids are in prison and half the students are not.

She admits to being afraid to continue her education because of her past history with drugs.

“I was always intimidated before to go to school, and so going through that, it just showed me I was no different than everybody else, so that was kinda cool,” she says.

Taking the class sparked her interest in enrolling at MCCC. She plans to talk with a counselor soon to work out everything she needs to get done.

She says she hesitated to enroll because she had no idea who to contact.

“I think my biggest part was, I didn’t even know where to start,” Goins says.

“Are we gonna beat it from the outside? No, it’s gonna come down to the individual, the individual has to put his or her foot down for themselves.”

Donald Stewart Michigan State Police Trooper She said she wants to take a few classes before deciding on a major.

“I’d really like to get something in social work, but I know there are all sorts of fields that I can go in, so I need to venture out and see what I’m able to do, especially with my background. That’s something that’s gonna play a big part,” she says.

She thinks the hardest part of taking classes will be fitting all her other commitments into her schedule, from recovery meetings to a part-time job.

“Just finding balance with it all would probably be the biggest struggle,” Goins says.

8 • March 26, 2018

Agora/mcccagora.com • 9

One Book, One Community features memorable events MCCC celebrates OBOC with events all through the month of March and into April

Panel focuses on conflicts involving civil rights Agora staff

Taylor Dively Agora Staff

Award winning author Jamie Ford was full of humor and life advice when he spoke to a One Book One Community audience March 22.

The “Meet the Author” night gave readers a chance to get to know a world renowned author.

Ford discussed his book, “Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet,” which was chosen for this year’s One Book One Community program.

The program focuses on creating a community-wide reading culture.

“Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet” is set during the Second World War and focuses on the Chinese and Japanese neighborhoods of Seattle, Wash.

The main character, Henry Lee, is a Chinese-American teenager who happens to fall in love with a Japanese girl, Keiko.

Henry’s parents are against anything that has to do with the

Professor Edmund La Clair at the OBOC celebrity waiter event at Public House Feb. 19.

“If I had known so many people would be reading this book I would have spent more time on it,” Jamie Ford One Book featured author Japanese, since they are enemies to the U.S and Chinese during the war.

The story details Henry’s challenges with racism and prejudice toward himself, his ethnicity, and the Japanese.

Ford’s great-grandfather had emigrated to the U.S from China in 1865. Ford’s father grew up as a second generation American in Seattle, and was the influence for his book.

“My dad was Chinese,” Ford said. “When he was 13, he was given one of those ‘I am Chinese’ buttons to wear as he would walk to school. The white kids would throw stuff, call him ‘Jap,’ and he would get in fist fights.

“When my dad passed away, I started to get curious about stories from his childhood. I went to a workshop in Virginia in 2006 and I wrote a short story about the characters of Henry and Keiko, and everyone really liked it. That was my encouragement.”

Ford went home after that convention and got to work. His home contained an office that served as his workshop.

“I have an office where I would write,” Ford said. “And I like college football. I actually didn’t watch a single game that year. I just unplugged the TV and was like, ‘I’m gonna write’.”

The story is fiction, but a good portion of it does line up with actual events. Naval ships that are mentioned in the book were real and the internment camps were depicted as accurately as possible.

Ford took the time to look through historical records to make sure that all his information lined up correctly.

Photos by Vanessa Ray

Author of “Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet,” Jamie Ford talks about his book at the Meyer Theater March 22

“If I had known so many people would be reading this book, I would have spent more time on it,” Ford said. “I did a bunch of research. Six months of research and then the first draft was done in three months. It was really quick. I had never written anything that quick. Then again, I didn’t watch TV, I hated my day job. I was all in on this book and it just worked out.”

He never would have expected a book that was written that fast would become so popular.

“Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet” has been translated into 34 different languages and Ford has travelled all over the world to speak about the book.

“Last year, I did a 38-city book tour for two-and-a-half months,” Ford said. “It was too much. It broke my brain. It was wonderful to have that opportunity, but it was too much.

“When you spend nine straight days in a row in a different town every night and a different hotel room and you wake up and don’t know where you’re at. The events with people are great, but the repetition of just random hotel rooms and food and planes wears on you.”

Ford loves being an author, but everybody needs a getaway.

His getaway happens to be the vertical slopes of the outdoors surrounding his home with his family and friends.

“I live in Montana, so I love to climb,” Ford said. “Most of my summers are spent trying to figure out how to get on top of this mountain or that mountain. It’s kind of addicting. Some mountains I climb with my kids, and those are pretty easy. Still, it’s really cool to show someone something that they’ve never

Kanako Morishita helps President Kojo Quartey learn how to do calligraphy at the OBOC kickoff event March 14.

seen before. Even into the shorter seasons we do stuff. I like to ski.”

Literary fame doesn’t always seem as prominent when compared to an actor or musician, but “Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet” is possibly getting made into a musical. One little piece of advice that Ford received one night was what made this all possible.

Professor Lori Jo Couch learns how to fold an origami swan during the OBOC kickoff event March 14.

“I went out to dinner one night with a guy that ran a workshop and I was basically whining about how a previous book I was working on wasn’t working,” Ford said. “He basically said ‘who cares.’ Write what you want. Write the story that you want to write. Don’t worry about who’s there to read it.”

A who’s who of Michigan immigrants affected by changes in U.S. immigration policy will appear together on a panel discussion at MCCC next week.

From the pastor of a church giving sanctuary to immigrants, to a woman whose husband was deported, the panel offers a dramatic snapshot of the human toll of U.S. immigrant decisions.

Cindy Ramos Garcia has become a national spokesperson for immigrants affected by President Donald Trump’s immigration policies. She has appeared on The View, CNN, MSNBC, Telemundo and Univision, among others, following her husband’s deportation.

The Rev. Jill Hardt Zundel is pastor at Detroit’s Central United Methodist Church, which is providing sanctuary for an Albanian family that fled communism decades ago and now faces deportation.

They will be joined on the panel by a “dreamer,” a young immigrant who had been protected by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which is now in political limbo, and a survivor of a Japanese internment camp during World War II. The panel is part of Monroe County’s One Book, One Community program, which this year is reading “Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet,” a novel about the effect of Japanese internment camps on families and friends.

The panel is titled, “Balancing Act: Security vs.

Civil Rights,” and is designed to explore the lessons we learned as a country following the treatment of Japanese-Americans during World War II and how they apply today.

Author Jamie Ford visited the MCCC campus Thursday, talking to students during the day and giving a speech in the evening.

During the Q&A with students, he agreed there is a connection between how his Chinese ancestors were treated in the 19th Century, our internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II, and how we’re treating immigrant populations today.

It’s human nature to blame others for your problems, he said, and it’s easy for politicians to take advantage of that human tendency, demonizing marginalized populations to gain votes.

Ford’s book tells the story of how the internment affected the lives of a Japanese girl and Chinese boy who lived in Seattle, Wash., during World War II. Ford told students that “Hotel” sold well from the beginning, probably because it struck a nerve with Americans who were embracing a new multicultural era.

After slipping for several years, sales surged again in the last couple of years, Ford said, fueled by the election of Donald Trump. How we treat our marginalized immigrant populations is back in the news, he said, and that has returned his breakout novel to prominence.

The panel discussion will be at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the La-Z-Boy Center at MCCC. It is sponsored by the Agora and the moderator will be Vanessa Ray, current editor of the newspaper.

The panel members include: Cindy Ramos Garcia, whose husband was deported in January. She was born in Royal Oak and attended Western High School and Wayne State University, and worked as a union organizer for the UAW. Married with three children and one grandchild, she has focused on being a spokesperson for families caught up in the U.S. immigration system and fighting for family reunification. Garcia has told her family’s story on The View, CNN, MSNBC, Telemundo and Univision, among others.

Mary Kamidoi, a Japanese internment camp survivor. She was born in Stockton, Calif., and spent 3½ years in the Rohwer Arkansas Internment Camp, then was relocated after the war to a small town in Missouri. Her family moved to Flint, and she worked at Ford for 37 years before retiring in 1988.

The Rev. Jill Hardt Zundel, the senior pastor at Central United Methodist Church in downtown Detroit, the church that is providing sanctuary for an Albanian family that fled communism in the 1990s and came to the U.S. 17 years ago. Rev. Zundel has been serving as a pastor in the local church for 26 years.

Samad Nadeem, a Dreamer who was born in Kuwait to Pakistani parents and first came to the U.S. at the age of 7 with his mother and sister, settling in Kalamazoo. After the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (“DACA”) was approved, Samad requested and received DACA and currently works as a manager of an oil change business. His mother, Saheeda Nadeem, cared for developmentally disabled children and traumatized children of refugees for Bethany Christian Services before going into sanctuary at the First Congregational Church in Kalamazoo to avoid deportation.

Diego Bonesatti, director of Michigan United’s legal services program, which helps people apply for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program program and legal residents apply for naturalization. A son of Argentine immigrants, he grew up mostly in the Lansing area and has worked his entire career on immigration issues.

10 • Feature

March 26, 2018

Agora/mcccagora.com

Artist leaves home to purse art James P. Quick Chief Copy Editor

It could be said that Melanie Hunter is a member of a rare breed.

The artist came to MCCC on Tuesday, March 13, for a lecture that discussed her career and work. A public display of her works will be shown in the library until Monday, April 30.

“I work primarily as a sculptor, primarily with cast glass, which is a process of creating objects in glass,” she says. “I’ve been doing that for at least 25 years.”

Therese O’Halloran, MCCC art professor, made it very clear how unusual that is.

“Melanie is one of only five people in the United States that does glass-casting,” she says. “Usually, what she does would be sent out of the country.”

It was O’Halloran who brought Hunter to MCCC. “We’ve known each other for a long time,” Hunter says. “I think she brought me in here because my work is quite different.”

Hunter herself hails from Jarrow in the north of England.

“I was an undergrad at Sunderland University in the northeast,” she says. “I did my undergrad there in glass and ceramics.”

When asked why she came to America, Hunter’s answer is simple.

“It was ’84, ’88; Thatcher was prime minister,” she says. “High unemployment in the northeast – I think it was 18 percent? There weren’t very many opportunities after undergraduate school that I thought that I could thrive in. I needed a monumental change.”

After scouting around, she happened upon Illinois State University. It was there that she attended graduate school.

“My work changed a lot; different culture, different place. It was a really fantastic opportunity, one that I just couldn’t pass up,” she says. “I’ve been very fortunate – I mean, I walked right out of graduate school and into a job, which happens very rarely into the job that you want, especially now.

Photos by James P. Quick

Some people interpret “Auricle” by Melanie Hunter as a representation of speaking and listening to the heart. This piece is in the library.

“When I think back to the situation I had back then, it’s practically unheard of.”

Hunter resides in Bloomington, Ill., and works primarily with famed artist Nicolas Africano, fabricating his sculptures.

“I also make my own sculpture, which is glass, mixed-media; a lot more experimental,” she says. “Then I work with other artists, casting and, you know, doing one-off fabricating jobs when they’re looking specifically for cast-glass work.”

She describes the work as very physical, technical, and often frustrating, but it’s obvious she loves it.

“It’s my life’s work,” she says.

The work she does with Africano is very high-end.

“They take a long time to make, they’re very expensive to make. At the beginning, we had lots of trial and error trying to get these pieces right,” she says. “That was because my skills were at a certain level and each piece is different; no two pieces are alike.

“It’s constant learning, constant trial and error, constant experimentation, and it doesn’t get boring! There’s always something new; either there’s a hitch, or you figure something out and there’s a eureka moment.”

Hunter laughs at the thought of picking a favorite piece.

“Oh God, that’s really hard!” she says.

“Really hard to say. I have lots of favorite pieces, but some of them it was figuring out a really difficult piece and having it really work beautifully when it’s finished and in the gallery, where it should be. Then you come back and look at it and you can see the progress you made.

“That’s a tough question.”

She describes her speech as partly-chronological, giving the trajectory from undergrad to her working life. Also covered were the techniques that she uses and getting into the various kinds of work that she does.

“I do lots of different things. They all inform each other. I’m a welder, I’m a

glass-caster, I’m also a photographer,” she says. “I do all these things in the studio because you can’t just hire one person to do one thing, you have to be efficient.”

She describes the process as constant learning.

“I thrive on that,” she says. “I think any artist thrives on that. I try to improve on what I’m not great at and I’m constantly improving on my casting.

Hunter previously taught in graduate school, but hasn’t really been to community colleges. She says she did get quite a lot of satisfaction from teaching, however.

“I love to come into this environment because I find that younger minds want to learn and want to see everything,” she says.

“So it’s a nice environment for me to get out of the studio, where I mostly work alone.

“Here I get to interact with people starting their careers and just beginning their posthigh school education and it’s fun to interact with them. I really enjoy it.”

Melanie Hunter is MCCC’s featured artist. Her art is on display in the library throughou Monday, April 30.

Agora/mcccagora.com

Feature • 11

March 26, 2018

New PoliSci professor fulfills his calling Donald Thomas Agora Staff

It could be said that MCCC’s new political science professor has teaching in his blood.

Michael Snyder comes from a family of teachers.

“Both my parents are teachers, my younger brother is a teacher, my older brother is an MD who, as part of his job, teaches medical residents and students,” Snyder said.

His relatives focus on physical sciences, including chemistry, physics, and biology.

“I’m sort of the oddball,” he said. “I broke ranks, becoming a political scientist and really focusing on political philosophy.”

Snyder was born in the small coastal community of Baytown, Texas. When he was 7, he and his family moved to Springfield, Ill. He began his college education with an inclination toward following in his family’s footsteps.

“I was originally a physics major, for about a year and a half, before changing to political science,” Snyder said.

“I changed because I found the kinds of problems that political scientists, and especially political theorists, face to be more engaging.”

He ended up splitting time between Springfield and Peoria for school.

“I started at a community college called Lincoln Land Community College in Springfield, Ill. It’s really not an overstatement to say that you get a stronger academic feel at a two-year school than a four-year school,” Snyder said.

“You tend to get teachers more interested in teaching than research in two-year schools.”

That doesn’t mean there aren’t good teachers at four-year schools, he said. It’s just that you don’t have much contact with them until your third and fourth years.

“A first- or second-year student typically has less opportunity to meet directly with their professors,” he said.

The start that students can achieve at a community college is very important to Snyder.

“I really think it provides a great opportunity for students to advance themselves at a two-year school,” he said.

He said he could tell he had an advantage over other students when he transferred to a four-year university.

“If I had to do it over again, I would probably pick to do my first two years at a community college again,” he said.

When it came time to move up to graduate school, the road was long, though enjoyable, Snyder said.

“I was slow getting through school. I ended up with two bachelor’s degrees and a minor, though it ended up taking me five years to get them.

“I finished my master’s and my Ph.D. on time, with breaks working in industry in be-

Photo by Donald Thomas

New Political Science professor Michael Snyder lectures in one of his classes.

tween. Though it was a bit slow, I would do it again,” Snyder said.

He decided to switch things up when it came time to attend graduate school, choosing Queen’s University Belfast, in Northern Ireland.

“I lived there for about four years and that was an adventure,” he said.

Synder liked that courses were typically set up with two hours of lecture and one hour in a small group seminar.

“So even if you had about 40 students, you would meet up in groups of eight for discussion. That’s something that I would like to maybe implement as a teaching style in my own classes for my own purposes,” he said.

Snyder has taken all of his experiences across the United States and from his time abroad into consideration when it comes to his own teaching methods.

“Class discussion is very important,” he said. “I always encourage it with either voicing your opinion or raising your hand.

Asking questions doesn’t just inform the students, but informs me as well, so questions are always welcome.”

He also has changed his views on being a student.

“School is a lot of hard work,” he said. “I think people underestimate how hard students work.”

Now 37, he said he’s not sure he could go back again and be a student.

“Before getting a job and everything else, you have to work about 60 hours a week to finish on time and be successful, I think.”

“So students work very hard, they’re not just goofing around.”

His teaching methods try to include realistic expectations with his students and their individual abilities.

“I try to be realistic and understand that most of my students won’t remember 80 percent of what I talk about in my class a year later, unless they are going to be a political science major,” Snyder said.

“So I try to think about what’s that 20 percent that will stick with them for years and be the most important.”

He said there are several main goals that he has set out to achieve as a teacher.

“I think about my class as having two teaching goals. The first is to understand the material as most of the material relates to your life in some aspect. The second goal is to impart some practical skills that tie into some other activity, such as writing research and communication activities.”

Michael Snyder New Political Science professor

“I think about my class as having two teaching goals. The first is to understand the material as most of the material relates to your life in some aspect,” Snyder said.

“The second goal is to impart some practical skills that tie into some other activity, such as writing research and communication activities.

He said he wants students to understand how to parse out information and how to present it, so he tries to also integrate practical skills that will help with any occupation.

“Something will come up in your life that you will be thankful you have those skills,” he said.

Being involved with academics has given Snyder great joy.

“Being an academic means you get to always explore new ideas and new concepts.

The learning never stops, and you get to share that learning with other people, and that’s the real perk of the job,” Snyder said.

“I guess that’s my selfish reward for being in academics; always being able to learn new things. The longer you are in academics, the fewer of those ‘aha! moments’ or ‘lightbulb moments’ occur, but they still come.”

Snyder sees being part of the higher education system as exciting.

“Higher education is important in society on all levels,” he said. “To be part of the process there isn’t really anywhere else I would rather be; I really think it’s cool.”

He said he would have been happy at a four-year school too, because he also loves doing the research.

“But being at a two-year school is good too, as you get to teach.”

He said the only time he wasn’t sure he wanted to teach was his first year in graduate school.

After the first year, however, Snyder says something clicked and he knew that teaching was his calling.

He talks about his love for the works of Hegelian philosophers. Hegelianism is a variety of German idealist thinking.

“There is a lot of contemporary writing that tries to update what Hegel was trying to do for the modern world,” he said. “What they do to sum it all up is that freedom is a social concept, and that we can really only be free if we can relate to each other and understand each other in appropriate ways.

“A community-centered notion of freedom is based on how well we can relate and interact with each other instead of an individual conception of freedom that can be socially alienating. That’s kind of what all that’s about at the end of the day.”

In his own work for his Ph.D., Snyder focused on distributive justice.

“Distributive justice is the question about how we distribute good and bad things in society,” he said. “Usually it is about goods, it could be about punishments for crime, or education. It’s a very broad category.”

12 • Opinion

March 26, 2018

Agora/mcccagora.com

The 7 types of love and where to find them Story by McKinley Striggow, Agora Staff; photos courtesy of McKinley Striggow

If you want to learn what someone fears losing, watch what they photograph.

I

n Psychology, a student learns there are seven types of love, each powerful, and sometimes they come without warning.

The seven types are Eros, Philia, Storge, Agape, Ludus, Pragma and Philautia. Each type of love has its own place in your life, but what Psychology fails to explain is the way love, when lost, feels.

Eros is sexual or passionate love, and is the type most akin to our modern construct of romantic love.

“In Greek myth, it is a form of madness brought about by one of Cupid’s arrows,” said, Neel Burton M.D., a writer for Psychology Today.

Philia, or friendship, is shared goodwill.

For Plato, the best kind of friendship is that which lovers have for each other.

“It is a philia born out of eros, and that in turn feeds back into eros to strengthen and develop it, transforming it from a lust for possession into a shared desire for a higher level of understanding of the self, the other, and the world,” said Burton.

Storge is a kind of philia pertaining to the love between parents and their children.

Agape is universal love, such as the love for strangers, nature, or God. Playful or uncommitted love is known as Ludus. It can involve activities such as teasing and dancing, or more overt flirting, seducing, and conjugating. The focus is on fun, and sometimes also on conquest, with no strings attached.

Ludus is not the type of love, in my opinion, that someone should seek after a breakup. Ludus is the type of love that would be unfulfilling to the newly broken heart.

For a healthy transition into single life

both parties need to be considered after a breakup. It is almost like a relationship, in the sense that both parties should give each other the time to heal and not do anything that the other person would be hurt by.

Pragma is a kind of practical love founded on reason or duty and one’s longer-term interests. In this type of love, sexual attraction takes a back seat in favor of personal qualities, compatibilities, shared goals, and a making-it-work attitude.

Philautia is self-love, which can be healthy or unhealthy.

“Unhealthy self-love is akin to hubris. In Ancient Greece, a person could be accused of hubris if he placed himself above the gods, or, like certain modern politicians, above the greater good,” said Burton. “Healthy selflove is akin to self-esteem, which is our cognitive and, above all, emotional appraisal of our own worth relative to that of others.”

For those of you who have felt love in its infancy, it’s like a lump in your throat that is dying to reach the surface. Finally, when that lump of “I love you!” reaches the surface, it’s like a huge weight has been lifted from your chest.

The opposite also holds true when the other person’s, “I love you too!” changes over time into, “I think we should break up.”

If you’re unlucky, it comes as a blindside,

almost like a knife in the chest, and if you’re lucky it at least comes when you expect it.

That lump in your throat and the weight on your chest comes back, but that feeling also has changed. It’s no longer a weight of anticipation but of unbelievable sadness.

Breathing may be difficult, rational thought goes straight out the window, and if you listen close enough I bet you could hear your heart strings fraying.

Dramatic? Maybe, but a heartbreak is not something that should be taken lightly.

Love is all too real and the complications a heartbreak brings, no matter at what age, are all too real.

O v e r time, your heart will mend, but it will never be the same heart you gave away.

L o v e when lost is a feeling unique to everyone, and everyone has different ways of coping. Some individuals move on in a matter of weeks, and others take years.

For me, my heart after this heartbreak was left confused. I wanted a lifetime, and two years is a very short lifetime.

In the best circumstances, an ideal breakup would be mutual and leave both parties with the optimism of staying friends.

However, if you truly loved that person, it could never really work. You could try, but ultimately feelings would get hurt and the healing process would never be able to start.

By no means will I be ready to move on anytime soon and, hopefully, he takes as long as me to move on.

If he doesn’t, I’ll find a way to cope with it, but in my opinion you should only give yourself freely to the idea of dating again when you are, no doubt in your mind, 100 percent ready.

I’m not talking about no longer having the feeling of wanting to cry at the thought of kissing someone else. I’m talking no strings attached dating, where you lead the other person on into thinking you actually want more than to get out because you are lonely.

Remember: Time is the healer of all wounds.

“Healthy self-love is akin to self-esteem, which is our cognitive and, above all, emotional appraisal of our own worth relative to that of others.”

Neel Burton M.D. Psychiatrist and Philosopher

Agora/mcccagora.com

Opinion • 13

March 26, 2018

Coping with anxiety in today's society Carla Cohen Agora Staff

Mind and heart racing, blood pumping adrenaline, sending the mind into utter chaos.

It’s like having a dozen or more tabs open on your internet browser, except you’re trying to open them all at once.

Your mind becomes overloaded, sending chills down your spine, and sweat on your skin.

This isn’t something you want to happen at all, but especially not at work or school.

There are many types of anxiety, but Generalized Anxiety is very popular, affecting 6 percent of the population, according to AnxietyCentre.

That may not sound like much, but that works out to about 45.6 million people.

One thing I try to do when I’m super anxious is to find things around me — this is called grounding. It’s based on the five senses: sight, touch, taste, hearing and smell.

I try to find five things I see around me, four things I can feel near me, three things I

hear in the room, two things I smell, and one thing I can taste.

It helps get your mind off those racing thoughts to help calm down your heart. It doesn’t work every time, but it helps when a panic attack is coming on, or is just starting.

It can be a scary feeling when you’re juggling homework for four classes, working a full-time job, and daily life in general.

There are days I don’t even want to get out of bed.

Anxiety can also partner up with other disorders, like depression. The main thing to remember is these are brain and mood disorders. It’s a chemical imbalance in your brain you cannot control.

The thing that has been helping me a little more lately is to break things down daily. Think of your week like a pizza. You wouldn’t eat an entire pizza in one gulp, would you? (If you did, that would be impressive).

Then, why would you let your mind think of everything you need to do all at once?

Break things down daily by what needs to be a priority now, and what can wait. Make sure you’re not planning too much in your day.

This semester, I thought I could handle four classes and working full-time. I need to work full-time to manage my bills, but I could afford to drop a class.

This isn’t always an option, so maybe try cutting back on free time, or scheduling your to-do list better.

One of the reasons I get too anxious is because I’m a procrastinator — putting things off until I can’t anymore.

It all begins with a single step, and can be worked on.

After not going to school for four or five years, it’s been a challenge already, without trying to overload my schedule. Not everything that works for me will work for you, and not everything that works for you will work for me.

It’s best to find what works best for you and keep trying until things are less stressful.

Photo by McKinley Striggow

Anxiety gets the best of us, you just have to keep your chin up.

Parkland students give a face to the fight Dan Shaw

Agora Advisor

It’s been more than a month since the Parkland school shooting, and something peculiar is happening.

The outrage hasn’t faded.

By now, all those heart-felt pledges following the latest gun tragedy are usually buried by an avalanche of conservative counter measures and social media noise.

It could still happen, but it seems that something is different this time.

In the past, despite media efforts to tell the victims’ stories, their families naturally sought the privacy of their inner circles.

This time, the Parkland students – survivors of the attack and friends of the victims – are giving the tragedy a face. And it’s an angry, energized and compelling face.

The Florida legislature couldn’t withstand their assault, passing gun laws that seemed impossible a few months ago.

The Parkland students appear to be the vanguard of a nationwide army. They’ve gained followers among students across the continent, including here in Michigan.

They have two powerful forces at work behind them, and two powerful forces working against them.

One of the forces on their side is the images of the tragedy etched on

Photo by Vanessa Ray

Middle College students joined the national walkout on March 14.

our minds. Modern media wallpapers those images across our digital landscape.

Another is public opinion. For years, surveys have shown that most Americans – about two-thirds or so – support banning the sale of military style weapons and requiring universal background checks for all firearms purchases.

Allied against the students are the National Rifle Association and the right-wing social media ecosystem, where vicious attacks and false claims blend into a toxic brew.

To understand why public opinion hasn’t been enough to force reform of our gun laws, it’s necessary to understand the disproportionate power of the NRA and conservative social media.

Ironically, this train of thought

starts far from guns and schools.

It begins with the redistricting process in state legislatures across America and the concept of gerrymandering – redrawing district lines to benefit one party.

Gerrymandering has been a problem for centuries, and both parties have used it to their advantage. It has come to the fore in recent years because Republicans were very good at following the 2010 census, using new technology to reach new heights (or lows).

In state after state, including Michigan, they succeeded in packing Democratic voters into a few districts, giving Republics safe majorities in the rest. That’s why they have 9 of the 14 House seats in Michigan, despite the statewide vote being split almost equally.

Of course, Democrats do the

same when they have the opportunity. The result is a U.S. House where the vast majority of the seats – for both parties – are relatively safe.

That means our U.S. representatives don’t have to listen to voters from the other side. They know they’ll win the general election; their only vulnerability is their own primary.

That is where the NRA and the far right social media maelstrom come in. While they may only influence 20 percent of Americans, that’s 40 percent of the Republican half.

And that’s not all. Many of them are one-issue voters, and they are among the noisiest and nastiest of the one-issue voters.

If the NRA gives a thumbs down to a candidate, their chance of winning a primary election takes a slide. If the right-wing maelstrom takes them on, they slide off the cliff.

At least that’s the conventional wisdom among Republican politicians. It doesn’t matter if two-thirds of Americans support restraints on open access to military-style weapons – if you can’t get past your primary, you can’t get those votes. And besides, gerrymandering guarantees a “safe” district.

Enter the Parkland survivors.

They have managed to cut through

the NRA counterattacks and they seem to be holding their own against the social media grinder.

They’ve been targets, of course.

The right-wing maelstrom has attacked viciously, with fabrications, distortions and conspiracy theories. If you’re caught in their “bubble,” you probably believe the Parkland students are really actors planted by the Democratic Party to attack the Second Amendment.

In the face of those assaults, however, the movement behind the Parkland students seems to be growing, not fading away. Two weeks ago, millions of students walked out of class in support, and Saturday millions more marched in Washington and at related events around the country.

The courage, passion and commitment of the Parkland students is a new force in U.S. politics. It may tip the scale in many of those districts that were considered out of play.

Republicans may find themselves giving in to the NRA and the right wing in the primary, only to lose in the general election to a new wave of support for gun reform.

Oh, and they’re also going to be running with/against the legacy created by Donald Trump.

There are some tough discussions going on in strategy meetings these days.

14 • Sports

March 26, 2018

Agora/mcccagora.com

Tigers rebuild under new manager Shane Brooks Agora Staff

After moving on from several former star Tigers, the team has turned to a new manager and few returning veterans for 2018.

The vibe in the clubhouse is a different one as Ron Gardenhire has taken the reins as the new manager of the Tigers following the dismissal of Brad Ausmus near the end of the 2017 season.

With the exception of some familiar faces, this team is in full-swing with their rebuild, start-from-scratch mentality after their 2017 season ended with a 64-98 record and a fifthplace finish in the AL Central division.

Through just a month of spring training, Detroit is unanimously being power-ranked in multiple polls as one of the bottom-tier teams. While below .500 in spring training games at 10-14 as of Thursday, the Tigers are a spot away from last place in the American League while teams such as the Houston Astros and the Boston Red Sox are in the top two spots.

Earlier this month, Gardenhire announced that left-handed pitcher Francisco Liriano will be put into the starting rotation come the start of the season. A season ago, Liriano was 6-7 with a 5.66 ERA through 18 starts for the Toronto Blue Jays and 20 relief appearances with the reigning World Series Champions, the Houston Astros.

“I think we need his veteran experience in that rotation, and if he’s healthy and well, I’m sure that’s where he’ll be,”

Ron Gardenhire is the new manager of the Detroit Tigers.

Gardenhire said.

After strategically being forced to move on from stars such as Justin Verlander, J.D. Martinez, Alex Avila, and several others, the three remaining money-makers are Miguel Cabrera, Victor Martinez, and Jordan Zimmermann for this current roster. These three will likely be asked to take the leadership roles for this youthful Detroit team.

Cabrera, the team’s most-recognized veteran, has shown an eagerness to prove critics and analysts wrong regarding his remaining career. At age 34, Cabrera has $192 million left on

his contract and the public perception is that he’s on a decline.

Contrary to Cabrera’s “don’t sleep on me” attitude, Victor Martinez has taken a very modest approach to his final contract season in Detroit.

“I wish I could tell you that I feel right now like I felt when I came into the big leagues,” Martinez said. “Unfortunately, I don’t. I think that’s what comes with age, I guess.”

Martinez was put on the team’s disabled list because of what was an irregular heartbeat that ultimately led to surgery and shortened his 2017 season. Going into the 2018 season, he’ll be taking it day by day as he’s done his entire career.

Jordan Zimmermann has already been named the starter for opening day against the Pittsburgh Pirates on March 29.

Many are confused as to why Michael Fulmer wasn’t named the starter, but Gardenhire decided to value the veteran.

“To me, he’s the leader of this group, and he should have the ball,” Gardenhire said.

The new Tigers’ manager called it a natural decision and also talked about how he never really considered anyone else for the start, despite the former Washington National struggling in his tenure with Detroit.

In 47 Detroit starts, Zimmermann is 17-20 with a 5.60 ERA. Last season alone, he had the worst ERA, 6.08, among the 75 major league pitchers who threw for at least 150 innings, according to MLive.com.

While spring training is no more meaningful than NFL preseason football, Tigers fans still have to be hoping for a different brand of baseball come the regular season.

Former Patriot Matt Patricia takes over Lions Shane Brooks Agora Staff

After the dismissal of former Detroit Lions head coach Jim Caldwell, the organization turned to a two-time Super Bowl Champion.

Matt Patricia had previously been with the New England Patriots, where he was the defensive coordinator on two Super Bowl winning teams, and an offensive assistant on a third.

After the coaching carousel made its rounds, Patricia had reportedly narrowed his choices down to just two teams (Giants, Lions). Prior to Super Bowl 52, multiple reports were suggesting that it was everything but official for Patricia to come to Detroit.

On Feb. 5, Lions General Manager Bob Quinn made the official announcement to introduce the franchise’s newest head coach.

“Matt is driven to succeed, has extreme passion for the game and excels in preparation,” Quinn said. “He embodies the same hard-working, blue-collar attributes that represent our organization and the great city of Detroit.”

Patricia talked about his familiarity and prior relationship with Bob Quinn, making his decision to take the job a simple one.

“Kind of the mentality behind it was very similar. Bob’s and my working relationship is outstanding, and has been outstanding

previously,” Patricia said at his introductory press conference. “My comfort level with Bob is huge.”

Despite three playoff appearances in this decade under two head coaches and quarterback Matt Stafford, the Lions are 0-3 in those appearances. Adding a head coach with top-tier postseason experience as an assistant could potentially be an X-factor.

Patricia will be inheriting a reigning 9-7 football team in Detroit. Just four NFL franchises out of 32 have yet to appear in a Super Bowl. As an assistant coach in New England, Patricia has appeared in three.

While Patricia is a defensive-minded coach, he said that his relationship with Stafford is a very important one moving forward.

He added that he’d be addressing every as-

pect of the team as a head coach would do.

Stafford made it clear that he hoped the team would keep offensive coordinator Jim Bob Cooter. Patricia said he would keep Cooter shortly after accepting his current job.

One of Patricia’s latest moves in this free agency period was signing running back LeGarrette Blount to a one-year, $4.5 million deal. Blount is a prior Super Bowl Champion, like his new head coach, winning two in New England (SB 49, 51) and one in Philadelphia (SB 52). The former Philadelphia Eagle will very likely be the Lions’ new goto set of legs for goal-line and short-yardage situations, which has been a vulnerability for this offense in seasons past.

Early in his tenure with the Patriots, Patricia coached multiple position groups for the New England offense. Looking at a Detroit Lions offense, which relies heavily on the pass before the run, slightly similar to New England, it’ll be interesting to see what he and Jim Bob Cooter can do offensively.

This organization has seen four different head coaches in the past decade, three of whon fell short of what was asked of them.

With a debatable top-tier NFL quarterback under contract in Detroit, Patricia was hired to seek out the missing ingredients for this football team.

Agora/mcccagora.com

Sports • 15

March 26, 2018

Shooting for sports at MCCC Funding an NCAA compliant program continues to be one of the biggest obstacles Taylor Dively Agora Staff

MCCC’s Sports Advisory Committee met for the fourth time on March 21.

The main continuing topic during these meetings has been how to raise money to finance a college athletic program.

In order to join the NCAA, the college would need to have a total of five sports offered on campus.

Those five sports are not going to come cheap.

Pay-to-play, Pell Grants, corporate sponsorships, and educational scholarships have all been brought up as ways to help fund programs or to help students pay for their participation.

“If we do pay-to-play, it has to be affordable,” Bob Willis, a member of the advisory committee, said.

An alternative to collegiate-level NCAA sports was also discussed. Club sports are a

Photo by Vanessa Ray

Flat Rock’s Chad Tamsen breaks away for a layup against Airport’s Kyle Estrill in a recent game. An MCCC sports program could keep talented area athletes in Monroe County.

cheaper way to allow a college to participate and play against other colleges.

A club sport team is not committed to a conference or playing a certain number of

games through a season.

The team is able to design a schedule based on its needs or desires.

This could help keep travel costs down for the college and the student-athletes.

Pay-to-play can raise problems down the line for a team.

Every athlete pays the same amount, but playing time is not guaranteed to every athlete.

Students could also be against paying hundreds of dollars to play a sport. The total cost of tuition and pay-to-play combined would still be cheaper than almost any other college.

A mix of pay-to-play, grants, sponsorships, and scholarships seems to be the agreed-upon method of funding following four meetings of the task force.

“It’s going to have to be a combination of things,” said Penny Dorcey, administrative assistant to the president. “Not any one thing is going to be enough.”

No official decision was made during the meeting, but many agreed the progressing talks were promising.

The next meeting is scheduled to take place on April 4 at 6 p.m. The location has yet to be determined.

Red Wings to miss playoffs ... again Taylor Dively Agora Staff

The playoffs are just under a month away, and the Red Wings will be hitting the golf course at the end of the regular season for the second year in a row.

Sub-par goaltending, a below average defensive unit, and a lack of depth scoring have resulted in a 15-point gap between the Wings and the last wildcard position in the playoff standings.

Goaltending has been an unanswered problem for the past two seasons. It’s become an even bigger problem since the Wings traded Petr Mrazek at this year’s trade deadline.

Jimmy Howard has officially been named the team’s starting goaltender. With a .910 SV% and a 2.85 GAA, his numbers are more befitting a backup.

Howard has been up and down throughout his career. One month he has league-leading numbers, the next he’s at the bottom of the standings.

With a young team around him and the lack of depth scoring, the Wings really need a goaltender who is consistent. They don’t necessarily need a goalie who is at the top of the standings at the end of the week, but the fluctuating stats aren’t helping a team that desperately needs to find a flow to their game.

In Howard’s defense, his teammates aren’t helping his numbers. Only four players have a positive plus/minus stat at this point in the season. Only one of those players, Jonathan Ericsson, is a defenseman.

The plus/minus stat is typically a good way to separate a good defensive group from bad when it’s put into a ratio with a player’s time on the ice. Including the amount of offensive vs. defensive zone starts can also help make the results even clearer.

Defensemen are typically in the positive end of the spectrum unless they take a majority of defensive zone starts or are on the penalty kill.

A negative plus/minus spread throughout the whole roster shows that the team isn’t communicating well on the ice and is giving up too many high-quality chances.

The high-quality chances are possibly the biggest problem. Both teams are going to get chances and shots in a game; that’s inevitable. Teams that are successful limit the high-quality chances and capitalize on their own.

When the Wings faced off against the San Jose Sharks on March 12, odd-man rushes were 3-1 in favor of the Sharks in just the first period. Out of those three, the Sharks capitalized on two of those chances.

The Wings weren’t able to score on their

chance, causing the game to open up in favor of the Sharks.

The lack of scoring has to put a considerable amount of pressure on Howard’s shoulders as well. To win a game, Howard has to be near-perfect to even give his team a chance. That’s a lot of extra stress to put on a player who already plays one of the most stressful positions in sports.

In recent years, the NHL has turned into a faster and younger league. Young players are receiving more playing time and putting up similar numbers to veteran players for an even cheaper salary cap hit.

The Wings looked like they were headed in the right direction at the beginning of the season. They have the young talent.

Players like Dylan Larkin, Andreas Athanasiou, Anthony Mantha, and Gustav Nyquist saw some playing time in past seasons and looked poised to take over the next generation of Red Wing stardom.

All of these young players play a speedand-skill game. Those characteristics can sometimes lead players to try and make a play all by themselves instead of reading off of other players and making the “safe” play.

Hopefully this season will become a lesson for the team. If they do learn from it, then the Wings could experience a quick turnaround like the Colorado Avalanche had this year.

Photo by Taylor Dively

Red Wings Captain Henrik Zetterberg faces off earlier in the season

Last season, the Avalanche were at the bottom of the standings and gave up on the season about halfway through the schedule.

This year they currently sit in a playoff spot.

All the success the Wings have had in the past makes it tough on the fans, who have taken playoff hockey in Detroit for granted.

The good news is that the future should be bright.

It may take a few years, but the Red Wings should see the playoffs once again, sooner rather than later.

16 • Arts & Entertainment

March 26, 2018

Agora/mcccagora.com

Not timeless, but definitely wrinkled “A Wrinkle in Time” let down by poor script, but still has appeal

obligated to create characters without any unflattering characteristics is astounding.

Meg is angry, lonely, and deeply unsure about her worth as a person, and newcomer Storm Reid picks up the slack by believably selling this character’s internal conflict. (On a side note, her recurring insecurity over her hair will resonate with young girls of color).

Sawyer Jackson Agora Staff

It’s been a while since the last time I went into a film truly wanting to love it only to walk out feeling underwhelmed.

Yet that’s where we are with “A Wrinkle in Time,” an adaptation of Madeleine L’Engle’s seminal science fiction novel. Despite being directed by Ava DuVernay, one of the most exciting and unique filmmakers working today, and stacked with a diverse cast of seasoned actors and a few promising newcomers, the film always feels like it’s coming up short.

The story is too awkwardly-structured and paced to become engrossed with. The dialogue is too clunky to sound realistic, and most of the characters are too underdeveloped with the performances suffering as a result.

Although “A Wrinkle in Time” is heavily flawed, it will most likely resonate with younger audiences due to its important messages of learning to love oneself in spite of one’s shortcomings and recognizing self-worth.

Four years after the disappearance of her astrophysicist father (Chris Pine), Meg Murry (Storm Reid) is a 13-yearold girl struggling with her father’s absence and her own insecurities. Three celestial beings named Mrs. Which (Oprah Winfrey), Mrs. Whatsit (Reese Witherspoon), and Mrs. Who (Mindy Kaling) reveal to Meg and her younger brother Charles Wallace (Deric McCabe) that their father vanished after discovering the ability to travel across the universe by “tessering” (wrinkling the fabric of space-time) and is now held captive by an evil force called the IT that is spreading throughout all of existence. The two siblings, along with Meg’s classmate Calvin O’Keefe (Levi Miller), accompany the three travelers on a cosmic journey to save their father and the universe itself.

“A Wrinkle in Time” is a rough viewing experience. The script by Jennifer Lee seems to completely forego economical storytelling in favor of scenes that just happen one after the other without any regard for connective tissue.

Additionally, the narrative is plagued with pacing issues, with scenes either running oddly short or lines of dialogue possibly cut during the editing process that leave the audience feeling unfulfilled. It also doesn’t help that the dialogue, especially in the first act, is so painfully stilted that it’s hard to believe that anybody would think that people talk that way at all.

Since the script leaves so much to be desired, DuVernay and her cast are given very little to work with, but they all

“This is a movie that wears its heart on its sleeve, even when its emotional moments are unearned.”

make genuine efforts. Despite the film’s fundamental story problems, DuVernay proves herself adept at traversing big-budget studio fare. “A Wrinkle in Time” is narratively-confused, but thematically-sound, and it’s due in large part to DuVernay’s sincere and humanistic sensibilities.

While Meg’s arc isn’t as satisfying as it needed to be, the fact that DuVernay was allowed to craft a protagonist as flawed as Meg when so many films on this scale seem Join us in the Little Theater (basement of C, room C3) ──── 7:30PM-9:00PM ──── Poetry Readings: Share your favorite poem with other Celebrate National poetry lovers and Poetry Month by students joining the Writing Fellows for their ──── biannual Poetry Night!

Costume Contest: up as your yourend-of-the-semester stress TakeDress a break from and enjoy a relaxing night favorite poet for theof refreshments and poetry.

Come ready to read your favorite poem and participate chance to win a in the night’s activities, or simply enjoy being a memprize We hope to see you there! ber of the audience. ──── Candy Bowl Giveaway: The end of the semester

Thursday April 12, 2018

Poetry Night

THURSDAY

Meg’s identity struggle relates directly to the IT, who in the novel is the physical personification of all evil, but in the film is the embodiment of all living beings’ anger, sadness, greed, and jealousy.

The film is at its best when the story takes a break from the cosmic trekking and becomes personal.

If nothing else, “A Wrinkle in Time” will connect with children by teaching them that when you truly learn to love yourself, flaws included, you have the power to change anything. This is a movie that wears its heart on its sleeve, even when its emotional moments are unearned.

Although I walked out of “A Wrinkle in Time” feeling disappointed, I realize that I am most likely not the target audience (that being young children) the film was made with in mind.

That’s not to say people outside said audience won’t find the movie appealing, but there is something to be said for films that aim high but fall short of expectations being more worthwhile than films that are utterly complacent with being just “fine.”

“A Wrinkle in Time” doesn’t live up to the pre-release buzz, nor would it be suitable to label it as a good movie.

However, each generation of kids has a movie that doesn’t quite hold up as they get older (“Hook” being a prime example). Even so, it can’t be denied that those movies meant something to the audience it was speaking to. Perhaps they will inspire those children or just end up serving as fond memories.

“A Wrinkle in Time” isn’t the film I hoped it would be, but if it becomes a touchstone for a new generation of younger moviegoers, then that is magical enough.

Join us in the Little Theater (basement of C, room C3) ──── 7:30 PM - 9:00PM ──── Poetry Readings: Share your favorite poem with other poetry lovers and students ──── Costume Contest: Dress up as your favorite poet for the chance to win a prize ──── Candy Bowl Giveaway: The end of the semester survival kit you need ──── Original Poem Contest: Winning poem will be featured in the Agora